Should chronic obstructive pulmonary disease outpatients be routinely evaluated for trace elements?
We searched for serum concentrations of trace elements and correlated them to malondialdehyde (MDA), which is an indirect marker of oxidative stress, in order to clarify if routine evaluation is necessary in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) outpatients. Serum concentrations of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and magnesium (Mg) were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and iron (Fe) by a ILLab 1800 autoanalyzer with ILLab test kits. Serum MDA concentrations were detected in terms of TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) spectrophotometrically. Serum Cu, Zn, Mg, Fe, and MDA concentrations in patient and control groups were all in the normal reference range. The results respectively were as follows: Cu:123 +/- 29.2 and 122.2 +/- 23.4 microg/dL; Zn: 87.8 +/- 17.8 and 96.9 +/- 12.9 microg/dL; Mg: 2.3 +/- 0,5 and 2.04 +/- 0.28 mg/dL; Fe: 73.8 +/-35.5 and 80.7+/-51.2 microg/dL; MDA: 1.09+/-0.11 and 0.95+/-0.06 nmol/L. MDA was not correlated to Cu, Zn, Mg, or Fe (p>0.05 for all). The serum Zn concentration of COPD group was lower than the control group (p=0.042), whereas the Mg concentration was higher (p=0.021). There was no statistical difference in other study parameters. Oxidative stress was not increased in clinically stable, regularly treated COPD patients. Although there was no deficiency in trace elements (Cu, Fe, Mg, and Zn), serum Zn was close to the lower limit of the reference value. There is no need for routine evaluation of trace elements in clinically stable, regularly treated COPD outpatients.